Ofcom released the results of its research conducted on the on-line safety of the young people. More than half (54%) of the youngsters belonging to 11-16 years age group said young users should be provided with more information and advice regarding online privacy. When it comes to handling the issue of inappropriate content online, nearly one-fourths of young people wouldn’t know what they would do if they found ‘inappropriate material’ on their mobile phone or games console. About 22 % of the surveyed would like to get more information that helps them to avoid such type of content online.
Cyberbullying was another common issue and one in five young people (20%) needed advice on how to tackle it.
About three-fourths of the 7-16 year olds did receive some kind of information on online safety or privacy while nearly a quarter (23%) of this age group said nobody discussed with them about online privacy.
Although most parents and carers (89%) said they could help their children with the online safety measures they know, a few (one in ten) needed more information and guide regarding online control or block setup and filters and controls set by games suppliers and internet service providers.
To help the parents, Ofcom published the following guides to parental controls on mobile phones, games consoles and portable media players.
Ofcom research also shows that most children and young people use mobile phones for communication while signficant number of them also access mobile internet broadband via mobile phones. More than one in ten young mobile users surf the net using their handsets. Their favourite online activities include downloading/playing music (80 %), accessing social network sites (45%) and instant messaging (38%).
More than one-thirds (35%) of the parents know how to use access controls on mobile phones of their children while more than half (53%) of them have activated access controls on the mobile phones, according to Ofcom survey.
Fortunately, very few children (4%) who used mobile phones have seen or heard any material inappropriate on their mobile handsets.